Aleris expansion completed

Wednesday

Jun 26, 2013 at 9:00 AMJun 26, 2013 at 9:01 AM

By Don Reid

dwreid@aol.com

COLDWATER — The Coldwater City Council will hold a public hearing and vote July 8 on granting Aleris International Inc. a tax abatement on $1.5 million in improvements already installed at the plant at 287 N. Fillmore Road.

The company has made $176,000 in modifications to its furnace building and asked for a 12-year abatement. Aleris already has installed $1.3 million in new casting line for which it requested a tax abatement for six years.

Shannon Bennett, Aleris' vice president of communications, said the operation "expands our recycling capabilities to include the production of deox cones used in the steel industry to remove impurities and maintain necessary chemistry."

The Coldwater plant produces specification alloy aluminum material in both molten and solid forms for use primarily in the automotive industry. The recycling plant is one of two Aleris operates in southwest Coldwater.

Bennett added, "The expansion is complete, and we are ramping up production. The expansion brings about 18 new jobs to the facility, some of which have already been filled."Already the plant employees 24.

City Assessor Debra Sikorski said the company has only one current abatement of $56,000. The taxable value of the plant is $7.8 million on 2013 tax rolls.

Aleris closed its Bens Run, W.Va., recycling facility March 1. The company also announced in May it would close its Saginaw plant by the end of the year, laying off 30 employees.

That plant's lone customer lowered its demand for the liquid-form aluminum produced there.